Io, New Horizons image. Io is the closest moon to Jupiter and the fourth largest moon in the Solar System. Its surface is extremely geologically activ

---

Io, New Horizons image. Io is the closest moon to Jupiter and the fourth largest moon in the Solar System. Its surface is extremely geologically active, having over four hundred active volcanoes. The plume of the Tvashter volcano is at the moon's north pole (top). This plume is 290 kilometres high. Half of the moon is illuminated by the Sun. This image was obtained by the LORRI (Long Range Reconnaissance Imager) instrument on board the New Horizons spacecraft, from a distance of million kilometres. It was taken as the craft passed on its way to Pluto, on February 28th 2007.

---

Size: 2956px × 2956px
Photo credit: © NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 1, 2007, 28/02/07, 28th, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, ball, black--white, cosmology, eruption, february, globe, horizons, illuminated, imager, io, jovian, jupiter, long, lorri, monochrome, moon, planet, planetary, plume, range, reconnaissance, science, single, solar, space, spacecraft, spaceflight, sphere, spherical, surface, system, tvashtar, twenty-eighth, volcano